Getting rid of an above-ground pool or a backyard shed in San Antonio

The short answer

An above-ground pool, frame and liner together, is $145.

A shed does not have a single item price, because a shed is a pile once it comes apart and the pile size depends entirely on whether it is a resin kit, a metal kit, or a built wooden structure. It prices off the volume ladder: 1/4 $241, 3/8 $338, 1/2 $431, 5/8 $513, 3/4 $587, 7/8 $661, full truck $732.

Most small resin or metal sheds, emptied, come in around a quarter to a three-eighths load. A larger wooden structure with a floor and shingles is half a truck or more.

Why every other San Antonio backyard has one of each

Because of the heat and because of the slab.

The pool is the obvious one. In a city with five months of genuinely brutal summer, an above-ground pool is the cheap, immediate answer, and they go up in yards across the South, East and Northeast sides and out through the newer suburbs every spring. They are also consumable. Three or four seasons of direct South Texas sun on a vinyl liner and a powder-coated frame, and the liner fails, the frame rusts at the base plates, or the pump gives out.

The shed is the other one. Houses here are built on slabs with no basement, so the shed is where the mower, the yard chemicals, the Christmas decorations and the bikes go once the two-car garage is full. Then the shed itself fills, and it sits in the sun warping and rusting for another decade.

Draining the pool first

Do this several days ahead. A pool holds thousands of gallons and nothing about it moves until that is gone.

Chemically treated pool water should not go straight into a storm drain, and that matters more here than in a flatter city because the creek drainages move fast after a storm. Check the current guidance from your water utility on where pool water can be discharged, and drain slowly across the yard rather than all at once.

Once the water is out, a collapsed liner full of a few inches of stagnant rainwater is a mosquito breeding site within days in this climate. That is the actual reason to deal with a dead pool now rather than next spring. It is also usually the reason your neighbors mention it.

What comes with the pool

Rarely just the pool. Budget for the rest of the setup.

Pool plus the loungers around it: $145 + patio table $89 + four patio chairs at $30 each ($120) = $354, against a 3/8 truck at $338. The load price wins by $16.

The sand or gravel base pad, and the deck if there is one, are separate. Decking prices as volume.

Emptying the shed before it comes down

This is where shed jobs get bigger than expected, and it is worth doing properly.

Pull everything out onto the lawn first and sort there. What you will find, in roughly this order: the mower, bags of fertiliser and weed killer that have solidified, pool chemicals from the pool you just drained, paint cans, an old bicycle, terracotta pots, and a stack of scrap lumber that was going to be a project.

The chemicals do not go on a general load. Paint, solvents, pesticides, pool chemicals, automotive fluids, propane cylinders and car batteries are household hazardous waste and go to a dedicated drop-off. Check the current accepted list and hours on your city's solid waste page and treat that as its own errand.

Everything else prices as part of the load.

Taking the shed apart

Three types, three different days.

• Resin or plastic kit sheds. Panels unclip. Brittle after years of San Antonio sun, so expect them to crack rather than disassemble neatly. Usually a quarter to a three-eighths load.
• Metal kit sheds. Screwed panels, rusted fasteners at the base where water pools on the slab. They come apart in sheets and the edges are sharp. Roughly the same volume.
• Built wooden sheds. Framed walls, a floor, sometimes shingles, sometimes anchored to a slab. Half a truck up to a full one depending on size.

The pad underneath stays. Slab and concrete removal is demolition and a different trade.

HOA rules and access

Two things worth checking before you plan the weekend.

In the newer subdivisions out on the far West side around Alamo Ranch and Potranco, and across the fast-growing North side out past 1604 toward Bulverde and Timberwood Park, HOA covenants often restrict what can stand in a back yard. A lot of shed and pool removals happen because of a letter rather than because of a failure. If that is your situation, get the price agreed in writing so you can show a timeline.

Access is the other one. Measure the side gate. A shed panel and a pool frame both come out through it, and a narrow side yard with an AC condenser pad in the middle of the run is the standard San Antonio obstacle. Carry-out from anywhere on the property is included, so there is no charge for a long haul around the house, but knowing the width helps the crew plan.

When to do it

Early morning, and ideally not in the middle of summer. Backyard demolition with no shade in July is the slowest and least pleasant version of this job for everyone involved.

The other timing point is spring. Dead pools and failing sheds tend to get noticed at the same moment, usually the first warm weekend when somebody goes out to open the pool and finds the liner split. If you know now that the pool is finished, book it before that weekend rather than in the queue with everyone else.

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